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Another attempt at Liquid DnB. This time it's a remix of "Halcyon Dreams" by the artist "MIDI Queen." Was originally progressive house/trance (not really sure) and was simple MIDI music. I really liked the melodies, and since I can't make melodies worth a damn, I thought I'd try a remix to see how things would turn out. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied.

As with all my music, this is best listened to with a really nice pair of over-the-ear headphones. I have a pair of Corsair Vengeance 1500s which are meant for gaming, but they have pretty damn good sound quality. If you have super-duper-awesome audiophile headphones, then that's even better. In-ear headphones should be fine too, but I never make my music whilst playing it back through speakers and a sub, so I can't say for sure how it sounds on such a setup.

Anyway, credit to MIDI Queen for all the melodies and whatnot. I love your music, dude.

Hope you enjoy this one. Thanks for listening.

Reviews

Rated 4 / 5 stars2012-11-26 01:30:28

I thought this was overall very well-made, with an almost-paradoxically relaxed energy to it. Nicely-structured, nicely-varied backbeats, though I'd like to see some more play with the melody, chord progressions and such. On a related note, you can obviously do a lot with soundscapes, your use of orchestral patches and synths especially underlining this. But the song drives along at a fairly constant DnB rate for eight minutes and I'd like to see a touch of the unexpected: not just breakdowns, which you do fantastically well, but other themes and sections, with perhaps some breaks in pace. I also think this could be trimmed down a bit in length without sacrificing any of the musical quality, which could make it seem a bit less repetitive. Nevertheless, this is a very refreshing track with a lot of cool ideas and very good execution. I dig!

Rated 3.5 / 5 stars2012-11-15 18:12:13

Yeah, the bassline is a bit low, but it's definitely there (it's the sort of buzzing synth that comes in around 1:51).

I didn't want it to be too heavy though since the song is meant to be relaxing. Generally speaking, high frequencies are relaxing (think soft white noise), while low frequencies tend to disrupt (big bombastic bass lines and stuff). Basically, you would be able to fall asleep much easier to big, sweeping, soft, and airy pads versus a smooth bass-line. Most of my music is on the airy side, and I really wanted to emphasize that with this track. Even the kicks in the drums don't have a ton of oomph to them. They have just enough bass so that they can be discerned and give a sense of rhythm.

I could always try and tweak the bass to see if I can get some better results. If I manage that, I'll post an updated mix.

Anyway, I really appreciate your feedback. Glad you took the time to listen to it.

Rated 4 / 5 stars2012-11-14 23:57:54

Repetitiveness is something I try hard to avoid, but whenever I make calm songs like this one, I usually end up making it repetitive. The fact that I can't make decent melodies means I also can't rearrange an existing melody to create some variation. I really do care about this track though since it's by far my best attempt at DnB, so I might attempt some rearranging to see if I can make it more diverse and interesting to listen to. As it stands, I rely mostly on changing instruments to keep things interesting. A habit I wish to break, I suppose.